Scellan/Middle

Middle Skellan is the direct descendant of Tigol that was spoken in Skella. It had become Early Modern Skellan around fT 1150.

Phonology

Consonants

The Skellan spirantization had taken place: The Tigol lenited consonants ḃ ṗ ḋ ṫ ġ ċ /b bʰ d dʰ g gʰ/ had shifted to /v f ð θ ɣ x/. Compare Anbiric (Anbirese and Ciètian), which experienced a different consonant shift.

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	fortis	mm /M/	nn /N/		ññ /Ŋ/
	lenis	m /m/	n /n/		ñ /ŋ/
Plosive	aspirated	p /pʰ/	t /tʰ/		c /kʰ/
	plain	b /p/	d /t/		g /k/
Non-sibilant	unvoiced	f /f/	þ /θ/		ç /x/	h /h/
	voiced	v /v/	ð /ð/		ȝ /ɣ/
Sibilant			s /s̻/, z /s̺/	x /ʃ/
Affricate			ts /ts/	tx /tʃ/
Resonant	fortis		rr /R/, ll /L̃/
	lenis		r /r/, l /l̃/

Vowels

Middle Skellan had an asymmetric vowel system:

Scellan/Middle vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	í /iː/	ü /ʏ/			ú /ʉː/	u /ʊ/
Mid	e /ɛ/	é /eː/	ö /œ/				o /ɔ/	ó /oː/
Open					a /a/			å /ɒː/

Diphthongs: ai aü ei eu iu oe ui ia ua = /ai ay ei eu iu oe ui iɐ uɐ/

Syntax

Topic-comment syntax

Predicates

Að smøøh bo sbenopats, twm øráð bo [toxrorégin] syrŋ a go þarcǿma ŋe.

SG world COL dinosaur NEG only COL evolve-PASS.PART new DET PST.IPFV inhabit it

The world of the dinosaurs was not solely occupied by the newly-evolved. [The world of the dinosaurs, not only the newly evolved inhabited it.]

In some tenses (progressive, perfect) the particle fa can be used after the a when fronting.

Dy iant a duvwŋ.

The teacher is sleeping.

Duvwŋ a (fa) dy iant.

It's the teacher who is sleeping.

Contrasting

Contrastive "partial clauses" borrow the syntax used in focused clauses.

Sani dy ell ee Maið, ah twm Hmorill.

Sani loves Maið, but Hmorill does not [love him].

Sani dy ell ee Maið, ah twm ym Gelli.

Sani loves Maið, but she does not love Gelli.